Monday, March 27, 2017

Hameed Ali And the Custom Uniform

I’m happy the Senate did not succumb to Comptroller
General of Customs, Hameed Ali’s implausible pretexts of avoiding either
appearance before the Senate or wearing the service uniform.

Since his illegal appointment as Comptroller General of Customs on August 27,
2015, Hameed Ali, a retired army colonel, flies the service aircraft, earns the
service highest salary, occupies the top service office, but looks down upon
the service uniform. He wants all the privileges attached to the office, except
that grey uniform with green beret.

That military elitism of looking at the police with
disdain, the paramilitary with derision and civilian with contempt is still
running in Hameed Ali’s veins. Haughty, asocial and absolutist, Ali is a
terrible oddball under a democratic setting.

But if Ali thinks their uniform is demeaning to wear, as
his regimented, intemperate ego tells him, he should quietly leave the job for
career officers or someone who could abide by the rules. It is not a matter of
doing your job well, which is also put to question particularly by your
senseless retroactive order on car duty payment. Ali’s order on mandatory duty
payment for old vehicle owners is akin to forcing pre-JAMB era degree holders
to sit for UTME and score 200 to validate their certificates or risk revocation
of their degrees.

On the uniform, Ali should be reminded that discipline
as essential in military as it is in paramilitary service. As it depicts
discipline, commonality and solidarity in military service, so it does in
paramilitary service. When Obasanjo appointed a retired army general, Haldu
Hananiya, as head of Federal Road Safety Corps, he wore the corps livery to
show that he is part of it.

To demonstrate how proper dressing symbolizes
discipline, officers are even promoted instantly on the basis of how well they
dress. What will Ali tell a senior officer found donning beret while eating or
wearing No 2 customs uniform without tucking? How could you instill discipline
when you are appearing in mufti, bearded like Mufti Menk, and expect others to
look clean-shaven and appropriately dressed?

Regulation 31 of the subsidiary legislation of the
Customs and Excise Preventive Service Regulations provides that “clothing and
equipment shall be of such pattern and worn in such manner as the Board shall
determine.”

On the illegality of his appointment, the law provides
that the appointment of CG of Customs shall not be made except with the
recommendation of the Minister of Finance, and among Deputy Comptroller
Generals, Assistant Comptroller Generals and or Controllers, in the Nigerian
Customs Service. When Ali was appointed, ministers were not even appointed. The
Buhari administration, in its congenital procrastination, is also yet to
appoint the Customs Board. Promotion is stagnated, decisions are taken
arbitrarily, welfare and service motivation are at their lowest ebb. One need
not be told that absence of motivation and welfare breed corruption.

Again, take a look at Section 3.11:1 of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria Official Gazette No 24 Vol. 89 of 25th March 2002, which
provides that the choice of the comptroller-general of customs shall be by
“appointment of a suitable Deputy Comptroller-General of Customs (General
Duty)”.

But someone whose appointment was a clear violation of
the law is the one cautioning the Senate on the illegality of asking him to
wear uniform.
Hear the man in a letter to Senate on Thursday: “Regarding the wearing of
uniform, I wish to advise that the Senate avails itself of the legal basis of
its decision to compel me to wear uniform.

“I am similarly seeking legal advise (sic) on this issue
so that both the Senate and I will operate within the proper legal framework.”